1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information output system, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program and more particularly to an information output system, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program for identifying the user by performing user authentication processing based on the face of the user and executing data output of print data, etc., corresponding to the identified user on a printer connected through a network, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, data communications using a network such as the Internet or an intranet have been brisk. For example, in an office, etc., a printer, a copier, and the like are connected through a network for outputting a print job from PCs, etc., of user terminals of a large number of users. Further, in recent years, a multifunction device (MFD) including various data processing functions and network communication processing function as well as the functions of a printer, a copier, a scanner, etc., have been used in various fields.
For example, in an office of a given size, etc., a large number of user terminals are connected to plural network printers and print processing of a print job issued by the user with specification of the output printer, namely, the output destination can be executed.
However, processing for the user to select and specify one from among a large number of printers as the output destination also increases the load on the user. An art of solving this problem is described in JP-A-2002-149549, for example. The system described in JP-A-2002-149549 is a system wherein in a configuration in which a large number of network-connected printers exist, a print job issued by the user is once stored in a database managed by a central control section and then the user moves to any of the network-connected printers and enters the identification information of the print job already issued, such as the print job ID, and when the control section receives the entered information, the print data of the print job is transmitted to the printer to which the user moves for output.
However, in the configuration, the print requester needs to specify the job ID, such as a pass code, and the user needs to bear the job ID in mind or make a note of the job ID and carry the note. Since it is assumed that the printer requester is the job transmitter, if the transmitter and the recipient differ, the job ID needs to be transmitted from the job transmitter to the print requester using any other unit, this involves a problem of inefficiency.